Whats this used for

There is an old house being renovated near me and its being turned into apartments, the walled garden is being built on and the stables are also going to be accomadation. I think it was built in the 1700s and was somebody or others estate, its been the local park for years now and I've been knocking around there for at least 40 odd years.
During the clearance they have uncovered this building, partly underground and a tunnel in to the main house, I,ve never seen it before.It was covered in undergrowth.


This is part of the inside, a lot of work went into building it although it was away from the main house.
This is on the outside wall, its made of iron, any ideas what it was used for.

 

Cant help Im afraid Pete but how fascinating! What a wonderful bulding it mustve been - perhaps it was a hideaway for Masters indiscretions?!

 

Wow, Pete, these are fantastic pics ... no insult but the place is probably even better in the "flesh" if you will.

I would think this property may have had royal or lordship type people owning it originally. Do you know the history?

The third picture would have been a social courtyard ... or perhaps in its day the entranceway to the house for horse-drawn carriages.

When we lived in Whitchurch, Bucks, there were underground tunnels and such like there that had something to do with the castle that was once there.

I'd love to know what you can find our about it .. and what a horror it's being turned into apartments ... unless they keep the aura.

That last picture looks like an ancient bow! :eek:

 

Love the pictures, I was at school in a very old house near the Chatsworth estate and there were said to be underground routs to Chatsworth house from my school. Lots of old houses had escape routs for priests etc perhaps it was used for this purpous - who knows.

They walled kitchen garden in our village has been done up and made into a car park, they have cleared the old duck pond for a tourist attraction. I used to play there as a child and scrump apples and gooseberries, I was very sad when they did it up, but they have made good use of the land - things have to move on.

 

.... they paved Paradise and put up a parking lot ....

 

so we're on to big yellow taxis, are we, LoL?? :eek:

 

The device looks like it is adjacent to a stall so I wonder if it's one of those gizmos for tethering horses to while you're tacking them up or grooming them?

 

Yes, Dendro! :D

Love the birds, MMD!

 

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/91809

The crossbow type ironwork is pretty high up on the wall, MD, but I think you could be right about it having something to do with horses.

 

You can see how the "jungle" had overtaken the walls to the outside of the garden, its now been hacked back to reveal the full size of the ragstone walls.

 

Another underground entance, or in this case I think its a widow

They've got a lot of work to do.

 

LOL, the third pic I posted I thought it to be a room without a roof, my reason for saying that is that there are rotten box frame windows in the wall on the left.

 

it could of been a slaughter house

 

Could very well be Pete, but I've lived in old properties for some thirty years now, as old as four hundred.

The rotten windows don't mean anything in my opinion.

I'm looking at the building from the stuctural side of things (which is a special thing to me as I studied architectual drafting). What is to the right of the picture .. the view? I would have perhaps had that back area, behind those two arches as an entertainment area.